Link of the Week – #cockygate

Here in Romancelandia, we’ve had another kerfuffle that has left us a bit dumbfounded. It has been dubbed #cockygate, among other clever hastags. Seems an author is sending takedown notices to other authors who use the word “cocky” in their titles. This author is threatening legal action if they do not comply. You see, she has a registered trademark on the word. As you might imagine, this isn’t going to go well.

For those of you who haven’t watched this train wreck unfold, here are a few links for your amusement to get you up to date.

One by Legal Inspiration to help decipher what this means.

http://legalinspiration.com/?p=503

Here’s another post by The Digital Reader to show you first hand the goings-on.

https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/05/05/cockygate-faleena-hopkins-has-registered-a-trademark-on-cocky-and-is-using-it-to-threaten-other-romance-authors/

One to a Twitter thread to a well-known, best-selling romance author, Courtney Milan, who also happens to have legal experience.

And now one of our own, who happens to know a thing or two about intellectual property being a lawyer, and all, is about to go after the author like a dog with a bone.

I understand that dopey author @FaleenaHopkins has filed a trademark on the word "cocky" and is now threatening other self-published romance writers who use the term or the keyword.

She's about to get a big surprise – I intend to file a Petition to Cancel her trademark!

— Kevin Kneupper (@kneupperwriter) May 6, 2018